Fair, Breezy Weather on Tap Through Saturday

Orange County can expect fair, cool and breezy weather to last into the weekend in the aftermath of a cold front that swept over the region in the last two days, producing showers, strong winds and snow in some areas, forecasters said Thursday evening.

“It looks fair through Saturday. But by Sunday, we have a chance of more showers,” said meteorologist Rick Ditmann of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Strong winds followed the fast-moving front as it moved rapidly through the county early Thursday, causing scattered showers that created only a trace of measurable rain before giving way to sunny skies, puffy white clouds and a light haze over the Southland.

Sunny weather is expected to continue today, with high temperatures in the 60s and gusty north winds to 25 m.p.h. in some areas. Tonight, Ditmann said, temperatures may dip into the 30s in some inland areas, and into the 40s and 50s elsewhere in the county.

Saturday, fair skies and highs in the mid-60s and low 70s will change to increasing clouds later in the day, with a chance of rain at night.

Scattered showers are expected to begin early Sunday and continue throughout the day, with high temperatures reaching the upper 50s and low 60s, Ditmann said.

Palm Springs on Thursday was hit with gusts of 45 m.p.h. Burbank and Riverside reported sustained winds of 25 m.p.h. Gusts of 50 m.p.h. were recorded in the Mojave Desert, and winds reached 60 m.p.h. in the Tehachapis.

Southern California Edison said more than 18,500 customers were without power from a few minutes to several hours Thursday because of wind-related problems.

About 2,500 Southern California Edison customers in Laguna Beach were without power for 45 minutes Thursday night after strong winds caused some tree branches to become entangled in power lines, company officials said.

Steve Sullivan, a spokesman for the power company, said the outage began around 7 p.m. Power shut down automatically to an area along Coast Highway from Broadway down the coast to Mountain Road as the branches became entangled in the power lines. He said power was restored to all but 20 customers by 7:45 p.m.

Rain-hungry weather watchers got very little to cheer about from the recent front.

There was no measurable rain at the Los Angeles Civic Center and only traces in Orange County. The National Weather Service said that on the first day of February--normally considered to be the middle of the rainy season--only 2.31 inches of rain had been recorded at the Los Angeles Civic Center, nearly 6 inches below the 8.23 inches that is normal by Feb. 1.

According to David Cooper of the National Weather Service, coastal and mountain areas of Southern California average four to 10 rainy days in February. He said desert regions average about two or three rainy days, and two to three feet of snow usually fall in the higher mountains.